Night run

Tonight I ran a little over 3 miles in 30 minutes. But it wasn't 3 miles at the same pace; I ran the first 1.5 miles at about an 8:30 minute per mile pace, and then tapered off and ran the rest at a slower pace.  This was just an endurance run with the focus on the mileage.

I'm starting to wonder if I was doing something wrong when I first started running with the focus of passing the PRT.  I mean, I'd run as hard as I could on the light days, and I'd try distance runs on the grueling days.  And as a result I had shin splints, calf strains, and weird muscle cramps in the front of my legs, and I was absolutely bushed after the run.

Now I'm walking the dogs more often, and generally staying away from the hard pavement on the streets, and my focus isn't necessarily speed but being able to run 4 or 5 miles at a 9 or 10 minute per mile pace, which has really helped my endurance and brought my mile times down. Weird.

But the main idea I took away from all of this is that doctors and trainers aren't kidding when they say to start off slow by walking mixed in with jogging, and then slowly replacing the walking with the jogging until you're able to run 3 days of the week for 30 minutes.  I found this out the hard way.

For this week Tuesday will probably be my distance day of 4.5 miles, and I'll take the path that leads down by the creek since the road isn't graded much in the neighborhood and I get to run on dirt when I'm down by the creek.

Thursday will be a speed day consisting of fartleks at the YMCA track.